Educational attainment, literacy and computer literacy

The Statistical Office of the Republic of Serbia publishes the final results of the 2022 Census of Population, Households and Dwellings on the educational attainment, literacy and computer literacy of the population of the Republic of Serbia, by municipalities and cities (Book 4 „Educational Attainment, Literacy and Computer Literacy“).

In addition, one can find in the dissemination database the table with data on population aged 15 and over by ethnicity, age, sex and educational attainment, by regions. 

Таble 1. Population aged 15 and over by educational attainment and sex

	Total	Without educational attainment and incomplete primary education	Primary education	Secondary education	High and higher education	Unknown
Republic of Serbia	5691551	357406	1013067	3020958	1277396	22724
Male	2739739	110031	450544	1599987	567960	11217
Female	2951812	247375	562523	1420971	709436	11507
%
Republic of Serbia	100	6,28	17,80	53,08	22,44	0,40
Male	100	4,02	16,44	58,40	20,73	0,41
Female	100	8,38	19,06	48,14	24,03	0,39

The results of the 2022 Census show that more than half of the population aged 15 and over completed secondary school (53,1%), primary school (eight years) was completed by 17.8% of population, 22.4% gained a diploma of the high or higher school, while 6.3% of population are without school or completed less than eight grades of primary school.

Observed by sex, the share of women that attained high or higher education in the total number of women aged 15 and over exceeds the share of men with high and higher education in the total number of men of the same age (the share of persons with completed high or higher education/faculty/academy is 24.03% for women and 20.73% for men). 

The largest share of persons with high and higher education was recorded in Belgrade city municipalities Vračar (61.8%), Novi Beograd (50.4%), Savski venac (53,7%) and Stari grad (59.0%), while the smallest share of persons with high and higher education was in the municipalities Malo Crniće (5.6%), Žabari (6.1%) and Gadžin Han (6.6%).

In the period between two censuses the share of persons with high and higher education grew from 16.24% (2011 Census) to 22.44% (2022 Census), as well as the share of persons with secondary education – from  48.93% (2011 Census) to 53.08% (2022 Census), while fall was recorded in the share of persons without educational attainment and with incomplete primary education – from 13.68% (2011Census) to only 6.28% (2022 Census). 

Population aged 10 and over by literacy

As laid down in the methodological recommendations, the literate are taken to be every person aged 10 and over who completed at least four grades of primary school, as well as every person who attends school at the moment of the census. The question on literacy (whether a person knows how to read and write a short text from everyday life) was asked only to persons aged 10 and over who did not attend school or completed 1–3 grades of primary school and did not continue further schooling.

The results of the 2022 Census indicate that less than 38 000 persons, i.e. 0.63% of population aged 10 and over are illeterate. There are much more illiterate women than illiterate men – the share of women in the total number of illiterate persons is 71%. More than half of the illiterates are 65 and over. 

Observed by municipalities, the largest share of illiterate persons in the population aged 10 and over was noted in the municipalities Bujanovac (3.6%), Petrovac na Mlavi, Nova Crnja (2.7%), Bojnik (2.6%) and Plandište (2.3%).

In the period between the two last censuses, the share of illiterate persons in the populatin aged 10 and over fell from 1.96% (2011 Census) to 0.63% (2022 Census). 

Таble 2. Population aged 15 and over by computer literacy and sex

Sex	Total	Computer literate persons	Persons with partial computer skills	Computer illiterate persons	Unknown
Total	5691551	2602550	1685824	1376725	26452
Male	2739739	1227972	889986	608298	13483
Female	2951812	1374578	795838	768427	12969
%
Total	100	45,73	29,62	24,19	0,46
Male	100	44,82	32,48	22,20	0,49
Female	100	46,57	26,96	26,03	0,44

Computer literacy is defined as person‘s ability to use basic computer applications in performing everday tasks (for job, in school, at home). Consequently, collected were the data on whether the persons are able to perform text processing, create tables, search information on the Internet and whether she/he has electronic communication skills (sending and receiving electronic mail, using applications Skype, Viber, WhatsApp, etc.).

The results of the 2022 Census indicate that about 46% of population aged 15 and over can be considered computer literate (they know how to perform three basic computer activities – on a computer, tablet, mobile phone), about 30% have partial computer skills (mostly, they can find information on the Internet or to use an application for electronic communication or to use a computer for text writing, etc.), while 24% are considered computer illiterate because they do not know how to perform any of the mentioned activities.

Observed by municipalities, the largest share of computer literate persons was recorded in the following city municipalities of the City of Belgrade – Vračar (76.9%), Stari grad (73.7%), Novi Beograd (70.9%), Savski venac (69.9%), Zvezdara (67.6%), Voždovac (65.4%), Čukarica (62.6%), Rakovica (61.2%), Palilula (57.7%) and Zemun (57.4%), in Novi Sad (62.8%) and in Niš (55.9%). The smallest share of computer literate persons was in the municipalities Gadžin Han (18.7%) and Malo Crniće (19.4%).

In the period between two censuses, the share of computer literate persons in the total population aged 15 and over grew from 34.21% (2011 Census) to 45.73% (2022 Census).

 

Links: 

Book 4: Educational attainment, literacy and computer literacy

Таble 1. Population aged 15 and over by educational attainment

Таble 2. Population aged 10 and over, and illiterates by age

Таble 3. Population aged 15 and over by computer literacy

Таble 4. Population aged 15 and over by ethnicity, age, sex and educational attainment, by regions